Evaluation of the use of prepaid water meter on some irrigation management performance indicators: A case study
Abstract
Volume based pricing in irrigation is an important application method in solving excessive and illegal water use problems. It is essential to use a properly selected water meter to accurately measure the amount of water. In this study, the irrigation system performance of Kayack Water User Association (WUA) was comparatively analyzed for the years 2012 to 2017. The prepaid water meter has been used for water measurement in Kayacık irrigation scheme since 2015. While it could be irrigated on 11.754 ha in 2012, the irrigated area reached 19.528 ha in 2017. It was determined that there was a significant water saving and economic recovery after the installation of prepaid water meters in the irrigation scheme. The quantity of water, which was 7,414 m3ha-1 in 2012, decreased to 3,617 m3ha-1 in 2017. The cost recovery ratios were 76% and 107% in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Consequently, prepaid water meter usage provides so many advantages in service delivery, economics and productivity. In addition, the quantity of water discharged into the drainage canal has significantly decreased. It is recommended that prepaid water meter usage should be prevalence in irrigation operation.
Keywords
Measuring irrigation water, Prepaid water meter, Service delivery performance, Financial performance, Production performance
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